In 2011 Robert attempted to drink 365 beers in 365 days, and he nailed it! What will he do next?

Sunday, 8 January 2017

December 19, 2016

This particular adventure started back in October with an item on the Canadian Beer News site concerning a Craft Beer Advent calendar. I got in touch with the importer, completed a requisition form, returned it and left it there.

In early December I was hearing comments from people who had picked theirs up part way into the month so I reconnected with the importer who put me in touch with the LCBO who told me that they did indeed have one for me. I gave my credit card information and waited to hear from my local LCBO.

A few days later I checked in with them and, yes, they did have it in the store waiting for me to come by and I picked it up that day. As you can see, a couple of compartments were opened to use as handles.

Still, pretty cool, right? Twenty four European beers to try out.

When my wife got home she asked if Big Al had been by. Alan noticed my shelf of bottles with fun looking labels and he has been known to drop off interesting looking empties for me. Here is the reason:

The first bottle she pulled out to look at was empty! No cap, bone dry and no odour. Plainly it had never contained beer. This led to a hasty emptying of the calendar. Luckily, this was the only example of an empty bottle.

Where is sits now is that the distribution centre agreed my VISA card should be refunded for the cost of one bottle but it is the store where I picked it up that should do it and they will be in touch if they need anything from me. Still waiting for a call or a refund of $5.85 or so.

This really has been a year of empty promises. For example, what's-his-name at the Wholenote magazine has spent six months in a state of being about to send a disc I had "won" in their regular Music's Children contest.

I will give it a bit more time. In the mean time I will hold off on sampling these until I can fit all of them in the beer fridge. Then I will decide what order to drink them in.